In the conversation, it is important that you not only announce your news, but you also reassure your manager that you are committed to your role and will continue to meet expectations. Obviously, every conversation is different and will be dependent on your relationship with your manager. You can’t read this like a script, but here is a guide (and suggested scripting) to help you through the conversation.

1. Announcement. Thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Advise that you want to share some exciting news and make sure that they hear it first. Your manager will no doubt respond and you can talk about how you have been feeling.

2. Commitment to current role. Assure your manager that you are committed to your role and your work output will not change over the next five to six months. This is a great chance to discuss anticipated doctors’ appointments and manage expectations, so provide your manager with as much detail as you can. Make sure you are clear on policies and what benefits your organisation provides in regard to pregnancy.

3. Next, it’s time to talk about your end date. When is your planned due date? What estimated date do you have in mind to finish?

4. Your career. Reassure your manager of the importance of your career and commitment to the organisation. Advise them that you will spend time on a handover plan and also your parental leave plan outlining key details.

5. Wrap up. Thank them for their time and agree on a suitable date to discuss your leave and handover plan. We suggest around 20 weeks. Agree on sharing the news with your team. Who will do this?

So a script could look something like this“I’m really excited to let you know that I am pregnant. We have just reached the 12-week mark and I’m sharing the news with your first, before announcing it to the team. Obviously, we have a lot of time to plan, and I am committed to my role and very keen to work with you to ensure everything is managed seamlessly. At this stage, my planned end date will be [insert date.] I’d love to follow up this conversation with a meeting, to talk more about how we manage things over the next six months. Would it suit to get together in two months and I can then talk to you about my parental leave plan and key projects? Thanks for your support and if it is okay with you, I would now love to share the news with our team.”

Now we know that you will not recite this word for word. The idea of suggested scripting is to help you devise your own script. Know that most managers will want to congratulate you and will probably stop you after the first sentence. Just go with it and enjoy it. But then get back to the script and reassure your manager that you are committed to the role.

If you are telling your manager early into the pregnancy, you may want to think about something like“I’m excited to let you know I am pregnant and confidentially, we are [insert weeks] along. I am telling you this because as my manager, I needed to let you know that I am experiencing significant morning sickness and finding some days quite challenging. That doesn’t mean I’m not committed to my role, and hopefully it passes in a month or two.”

And if you happen to be further along then you just need to think about your opener.“I’m thrilled to share the news that I’m pregnant! I’m due in [number of weeks], but as you’ve seen my work output has not changed. I am fully committed to my role and I would like to work with you to develop a plan on my maternity leave….”

Email templates requesting a meetingHi [insert name],I’m hoping to schedule some time with you in the next week to discuss a few things. These are mostly personal matters and so I would really appreciate 30 minutes if possible.I look forward to hearing from you.

Follow up email after the meetingHi [insert name],Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today to hear my exciting news. As discussed, I am committed to my role and want to reassure you that managing my career and role over the next six months will be important to me.I have a number of appointments over the next six months but I will schedule these where possible at times that work best for my role and the team. Whilst it is still months away, I am also keen to work with you on my hand-over plan and look forward to discussing this in a few months.Thank you again.

Circle In was established to improve the lives of working parents. We are building a global community for the modern working parent- from considering, to pregnancy, to parenthood, and back to work again. We also partner with leading companies to deliver a unique parental leave support program.